Anna Gurney

Early life and education

Anna Gurney was born on 31 December 1795, likely at Keswick Hall, near Norwich, Norfolk, in England. She was daughter to Richard Gurney (1742–1811) and his second wife Rachel Gurney, née Hanbury (c. 1763–1825). Richard Gurney worked as a partner of Gurney's Bank. Anna's siblings were; Richard Gurney, and her elder sister Elizabeth Gurney, and she also had a half brother in Hudson Gurney (1775–1864), who was twenty years her senior. Anna lived at Keswick Hall from childhood, alongside Sarah-Maria Buxton, sister of Thomas Fowell Buxton. Thomas was the husband of Anna's cousin, Hannah Gurney. The Gurney family were prominent Quakers.

As a child, (10 months old) Gurney contracted a disease which was probably polio, described as a "paralytic affliction", as the disease paralysed her lower limbs, meaning from a young age and for the rest of her life Anna Gurney was a wheelchair user. Richard Gurney, her father, owned two properties; Keswick Hall and Northrepps Hall, the latter being near Cromer, Norfolk. He would die in 1811, after which Anna stayed with her mother at Northrepps Cottage, also known as Overstrand Cottage, on the Northrepps estate.

Anna Gurney was schooled at home, and was brought up a Quaker. Her sister Elizabeth, her cousin Catherine Gurney, and a tutor would give her her early education. At an early age, she learnt Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Anglo-Saxon (also known as Old English); her first steps in foreign and medieval languages were overseen by her half-brother Hudson Gurney, an adult by the time of Richard Gurney's death. She was once found as a child with an Anglo-Saxon grammar under her pillow.

Career

Throughout Gurney's adult life, Anna devoted resources and time to many different causes. This included abolition work, education for children, and geology. She mainly focused her geological research on local portions of the Cromer Forest Bed formation. As adults, she and Hudson Gurney would share scholarly interests, and for decades would exchange letters almost daily. As an adult, she converted from being a Quaker to Anglicanism, and was baptised as such.

1817–25: Translations of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other texts

Gurney in 1817 created a translation of the Kongs-Skugg-Sio, or, Speculum regale, a Norwegian text. This received a private and local printing, and was only circulated amongst her family.

In 1819, at age 23, she published A Literal Translation of the Saxon Chronicle, for which she is remembered most. Gurney identified herself for the work only through the sobriquet "A Lady in the Country." She stated in its preface that this work was far along when she had learned that a full collected edition by James Ingram, at the time a former Rawlinson Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, was about to be published. This caused her to go ahead with publication but only "for private circulation" in a limited impression. As a result, few copies of this work survive today. She only had access to the printed texts rather than the original sources for the translation. A Literal Translation was the first translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It was commended by the academic Ingram when he finally published his Saxon Chronicle with Translations in 1823. Gurney's translation was compared to that of Ingram by reviewers, who favoured Gurney's, and it retained its positive reputation through to the 20th century as it was accurate, literal, clear, and plain in style. Positive reviews included Sir Francis Palgrave calling it a "remarkable work for a young woman", and John Mitchell Kemble calling it "very creditable".

In 1820, she produced a translation of 'A Saxon homily on St Neot'. This was published in an anonymous fashion as a part of Norfolk antiquary George Gorham's work.

She became known for her philanthropic maritime rescue efforts on the coastline of Norfolk, directing rescue operations from the shore before offering foreign sailors food and shelter, and talking to them in their own languages. In 1825, she wrote the pamphlet On Means of Assistance in Cases of Shipwreck, which would be included in an edited version in The Fisherman's Friendly Visitor and Mariner's Companion, a magazine. She procured at her own expense for the town of Sheringham a Manby mortar, also known as a Manby Life Saving Rocket. This was an apparatus used to fire a line to a ship in peril.

1825–34: Northrepps Cottage, Sarah Buxton, philanthropy and the Belfry School

In 1825, after the death of her mother, her home became Northrepps Cottage, and she lived with Sarah Buxton, in a household that was matriarchal. Here, they established a base of operations for their political, scientific and artistic work. They shared an interest in zoology, natural history, and fossils, and worked together on animal welfare campaigns.

From 1827, when the Buxtons also moved to the Northrepps estate at Northrepps Hall, Gurney became part of the Buxtons' close family circle. While she and Buxton were not involved in the family's dealings in London, they were heavily engaged in their activities in Norfolk. Gurney campaigned on local Norfolk issues, sponsoring initiatives to improve the safety of local fishermen and gaining popularity through these efforts. Gurney thus established and maintained lifeboat services by Overstrand, and additionally pressured Thomas Fowell Buxton to raise discussion on lifeguard stations in the House of Commons. In 1830, Gurney lobbied Trinity House to install a light off Happisburgh; the effort was successful, and the light was set up on a small lifeboat by Happisburgh's most dangerous area of sand. It became known as the 'Gurney light'.

During their time together, Gurney and Buxton founded and ran an elementary school known as the Belfry School, located in a cobble building in Overstrand. This building notably features the initials G and B, for Gurney and Buxton, in pink pebbles at its front. The cost for each child was 1d per week. As of 2016, there was still a school at the building. On top of this, Anna also educated young women while also hosting labouring men's evening classes. Her teaching was progressive and thorough, and had "an emphasis on encouragement with sweets, rather than punishment"; this was innovative at the time. They additionally gave adult tuition at Northrepps Cottage, including to William Forster in his early political career; he would later become a Liberal MP. Gurney and Sarah Buxton also financed the construction of a road through Overstrand and other infrastructure, and ran several local charities such as a clothing charity and Bible clubs. The pair also travelled Britain and Europe, being carried up a glacier at Grindelwald. While supportive of the efforts of Thomas Buxton and in close touch with him, there is scant evidence of Gurney and Sarah Buxton being involved in the Buxtons' political activities until 1834.

1834–39: Campaign for indigenous populations in the British Empire

In August 1834, Priscilla Buxton withdrew from assisting her father Thomas Fowell Buxton, because of her marriage to Andrew Johnston and decision to spend time on their Scottish estate. Thomas at the time was leading the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilization of Africa, as well as a campaign highlighting the injustices committed by the British Empire on its indigenous peoples. At Northrepps Cottage, Anna and Sarah Buxton thus took over from Priscilla Buxton's role in the campaign for a period of six months, though continued their work with Thomas after the newly married couple returned to London in spring 1835. Anna and Priscilla, occasionally damaging their health, frequently worked twelve-hour days during this period, usually composing Thomas's speeches. Kathryn Gleadle has argued that Anna and Priscilla's work operated under 'Thomas Fowell Buxton' like a brand name.

One aim of the political project was to allow the Xhosa people, on the Cape coast, to be treated in a humanitarian manner, and Anna and Sarah gathered masses of data such as statistics on the economic condition of the indigenous population in order to oppose the government's accused punitive action on these people. After the group heard of the death of Hintsa kaKhawuta, king of the Xhosa Kingdom, Anna drew up a pamphlet to be signed by Thomas and submitted to the Colonial Office. Anna and Sarah worked to sift and cull evidence from missionary and government sources in preparation for Thomas's second parliamentary speech on aborigines in July 1835, selecting the most compelling pieces of evidence for Thomas's use in private and parliamentary lobbying. Anna suggested that the specific South Africa campaign should become a parliamentary committee about the wider status of 'aborigines' in all British settlements. Working from this, Thomas was able to use Anna and Sarah's material influence the evangelical Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Glenelg, to inquire into all British settlements in terms of the treatment of colonial subjects. An Aborigines Select Committee thus began in August 1835. Thomas credited Anna for this this success, writing to her, "[O]wing exclusively to you the committee was formed, & that saved a nation".

In the midst of this, Gurney's Translation of the Ynglinga saga was published in 1836. Norfolk antiquary William Gunn was one of those who received it. That year, Anna and Sarah went to Frankfurt, and were invited to an audience with Princess Elizabeth.

1839–57: Death of Sarah Buxton, abolition work, European travels and scholarship

Sarah-Maria Buxton died in 1839. As a result of her own insistence, Gurney authored and spoke a funeral oration, led her funeral service, and wrote her a poem for her gravestone. Gurney continued to inhabit the cottage for the remainder of her life; she from this time was referred to as "Anna Gurney of Northrepps Cottage".

In 1840, The Remedy, a sequel to The African Slave Trade (1839), was published. While it is credited to Thomas Fowell Buxton and he composed its initial draft, and Priscilla Buxton did most of the work, Sarah Buxton and Anna Gurney had had close involvement.

Gurney worked with Amelia Opie, a close family friend of the Gurneys and Buxtons, to create a ladies' anti-slavery society in Norwich. Opie was known to refer to Anna Gurney as 'Dr Gurney'.

In 1841 in Archaeologia, the journal of the Society of Antiquaries, is a communication from her on The Discovery of a Gold Ornament near Mundesley in Norfolk, and a paper On the Lost City of Vineta, a submerged Phœnician city, as well as a third publication. All three are totally anonymous; they were credited to a "gentleman unnamed" when read out by George Ellis. As vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries in charge of publications, Hudson Gurney likely helped arrange publication for these pieces; these were letters sent to Sir Henry Ellis, the Principal Librarian of the British Museum, to whom she was a friend, as well as a consultant. However, there is no evidence that she used the British Museum's Reading Room. Gurney also learned a number of African languages, and wrote a grammar on the Hausa language, alongside the Reverend James Schön. Schön, a missionary, had previously been on the 1841 Niger expedition and African Baptist Augustus William Hanson, who had learned from Gurney's own philosophy of language, had taught Schön the language Accra. Gurney and Schön also translated the Bible into Accra. In addition to this, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a former slave with whom Gurney worked, visited her around this time and additionally preached at the church in Overstrand.

Alongside the Buxtons after her partner's death, Gurney visited Rome, Athens and Argos, and was contemplating a voyage to the Baltics. When they were in Rome, a paper that she had authored by Gurney, arguing for a less cruel method of animal slaughter, was presented to the Pope and was successful. In 1845, she became an associate of the British Archaeological Association, being the first woman to join the association as a member. In 1847, she also became the first woman to be elected a member of the Philological Society. That year, she appears as a listed annual subscriber to the London Library in its second catalogue; she obtained these books through the General Post Office. In 1848, she presented a copy of her Literal Translation to the Philological Society.

Personal life

Disability

After contracting polio at 10 months old, Anna Gurney's lower limbs were paralysed; from a young age, she was a wheelchair user. Anna was known to sit and move around on the floor as a child, with her cousin Catherine noting in a letter that she was "busy on the floor as usual". She was seen far more frequently in her wheelchair as an adult, though was also carried in a 'car' when she went outside. She was active and flexible despite her mobility issues, and was recorded dancing with Sarah and playing skittles with the African people who visited the cottage. Northrepps Cottage received adaptations to accommodate her needs, such as adjustments made to the banisters on its main staircase which as of 2019 are still present. Sarah Austin wrote of Anna's interaction with her research environment:

When talking on her favourite subject – philology, she would suddenly and rapidly wheel away the chair in which she always sate and moved, to her well-stored bookshelves, take down a book, and return delighted to communicate some new thought or discovery.Gurney's financial resources, which were substantial, allowed her to make use of personal servants, though she also relied on family and friends. In cases of urgency when aiding people on the coast, she had others carry her down to the beach and directed the operations from her chair. In 1850, she remarked that her "dullness of head" and "weakness of hands" made her feel "inefficient in every way". Daniel Gurney wrote in 1857 that "She became very stout, & wheeled herself about in a chair in the house, & out of doors was carried, or dragged in a chair by two menservants". In later life, she experienced "great and frequent pain".

Helen Brookman has argued that many of the contemporary narratives of Gurney used her disability as a stock trope "as a way of domesticating her otherwise troubling political agency and sexuality", and drew on stereotypes to contrast her disability with her intelligence. Kathryn Geadle has similarly argued that depictions of Gurney "overstated her physical difficulties".

Relationship to Sarah Buxton

Zoë Laidlaw wrote in 2004 that the exact nature of the relationship between Anna Gurney and Sarah-Maria Buxton was unknown, but that they were a devoted couple. Geadle said in 2009 that they had a relationship of "deep emotional attachment", which took place prior to the creation of discourse on the idea of the lesbian. Cousins by marriage, they lived together from childhood, and they referred to each other as "my partner". On at least one occasion, Gurney called Buxton her "faithful and beloved Partner". Neither married, and they shared a bedroom for their full time living together. In the 1830s, despite being an intelligent and resourceful woman herself by all accounts, Buxton saw her role as supporting Gurney. They were known as the "Cottage Ladies"; Geadle has made the argument that references to them in this manner were "a means of obliquely hinting at, yet also containing, their unusual domestic arrangements", in a similar way to Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby who were known as the "ladies of Llangollen". Gurney wrote a poem titled "Thoughts on our 8 years at the Cottage" in 1833. It considers their home as central to their shared lives and self-defines them as unmarried and childless women:

Following Buxton's death in 1839, Thomas Buxton wrote to John Joseph Gurney, his brother-in-law, that "the affection she bore her partner was indeed remarkable, it is more than widowhood." Anna's cousin Daniel Gurney wrote that "although she had frequently intimate friends staying with her she never again had what she used to call another 'partner'".

Demeanor

Gurney was known for her altruism, likely influenced by her Quaker upbringing, as was her simple mode of dress. Gurney's mental capacities were described as 'masculine'. There is a poem attributed to Charles Buxton which describes the manner in which she engaged with the world:

Reverend Edward Hoare stated in her eulogy that she did not correspond to the stereotype of an idle woman; "What a contrast did she present to the listless, fanciful, and indolent novel reader upon the sofa! How manfully did she grapple with one language after another!"

Death

After a short illness, Anna Gurney died at the residence of her half-brother Hudson at Keswick, near Norwich, on 6 June 1857. Her coffin was carried by local fishermen at her funeral, attended by 2,000 people. Local vicar Paul Johnson said that the elderly poor in the area were Gurney's 'pensioners' due to her support for them. She was buried in Overstrand Church. alongside Sarah Buxton. Gurney and Buxton's tablet inscription reads in part:

To the beloved memory of Sarah Maria Buxton of Northrepps Cottage sister to Sir T. Powell Buxton Bart. who died (whilst on a journey) at Clifton August 18th 1839, aged 50 years and was buried in the adjacent vault. This tablet was inscribed by her sorrowing relative and partner Anna Gurney. Also of Anna Gurney. They were partners and chosen sisters knit together in the love of God and heirs together of eternal life through Christ Jesus.An obituary to Gurney was published in The Gentleman's Magazine. Following her death, Hudson Gurney was prompted to send Henry Ellis a copy of her work Extracts from the North Frisian Chronicle.

Estate

As Gurney had a large library at her cottage, the notes of Gurney's executors detail their finding of a large number of translations and analyses in her files following her death. These are compiled in the list of 'Anna’s MSS', listing the titles of dozens of translations, comparative collations, papers, treatises, and notes. Further works in this list mainly focused on Old English and Old Norse literary, historical, and philological material. Several of the documents were copied in the British Museum. Because she and Sarah Buxton made their own efforts to copy out and put together extracts of their family letters, abolition work and other political activity, Gurney's papers, including many letters to and from her, survive in the Norfolk County Record Office in Norwich. Hundreds of these are addressed to and from Hudson Gurney. Some of her correspondences are in the Library of the Society of Friends.

Her significant collection of books and journals, including on topics ranging from botany to Egyptology, were valued at £585.16. She had a collection of philological and antiquarian materials, particularly about Britain and Scandinavia. The scholarship included both outdated 18th-century works and more contemporary ones from both England and Europe. These included works by philologists Grimm, Bopp, Diefenbach, and Müller and antiquarians Hickes, Suhm, Lye and Manning, and Turner. She owned at least one Old Norse-Icelandic manuscript, an eighteenth-century copy of Víglundar saga, now in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Special Collections. She had also borrowed many books, being a member of the Norwich public and city libraries and the London Library.

Gurney additionally left an extensive fossil collection. The palaeontologist Richard Owen described it as "the most instructive in Norfolk", and Amelia Opie wrote that "Anna Gurney abounds in mammoth remains".

Anna also left a large bequest in her will toward the future of the Belfry School after her death.

In fiction

Gurney's maritime rescue work has been celebrated multiple times in fiction, including from Joanna Baillie who wrote of her in her poem "Night Scene by the Sea", and Charlotte Mary Yonge who reprinted this poem in the Book of Golden Deeds, adding her own commentary. By both, Gurney is represented in a similar manner to Grace Darling, being depicted as courageous. Both stories also overstate her disability. Gurney also appears as a character in Emma Donoghue's short story "Salvage" (2002). In its narrative, Gurney and Sarah Buxton deal with a shipwreck, and she motivates her fellow townspeople to save two Russian sailors. Upon being saved, Gurney initially incorrectly translates the sailors' wishes as a want to save themselves, though eventually correctly translates them as wanting to salvage their lost possessions.